Windows Services take forever to load (Need help again!)

[ninjaronin18]

Greetings, I had to reinstall windows xp 32-bit on my thinkpad. Everything is fine except for the services take forever even though the computer seems to be done loading everything after boot. I've done all the updates via microsoft update and thinkvantage system update. Note that there's one device driver that's missing though and I can't seem to find it. It says the location is on Intel(R) ICH8M LPC Interface Controller - 2811. Could that be the problem? Any help on these two matters would be greatly appreciated.

[basketb]

How do you observe, that "the services take forever"? What are the implications? Is your system still usable or what exactly is the problem?

Wrt. Intel(R) ICH8M LPC Interface Controller - 2811, when I look at the driver details of this device on my machine, it shows:

Code: Select all

C:\\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\isapnp.sys

[ninjaronin18]

Yeah, my system works like a charm even on bootup EXCEPT it takes 2-3 minutes for the services to startup. Any application that requires a service for example network connections, thinkpad power manager, etc. won't load until services start up. I tried to manually start the services via services.msc, however that takes forever too. Just about as long as it would take to wait for them to start up by themselves. I'll try installing that missing driver. If that's not the problem, I think the solution lies in configuring windows properly.

[neenee]

Was your Windows XP installation a clean one and did you 'tweak' any settings, such as altering the default settings for the Services?

Have you tried using your recovery media to go back to a default Thinkpad installation - does the problem persist after recovery?

What forced you to reinstall Windows in the first place?

[ninjaronin18]

Okay, so I successfully installed a dual boot of ubuntu 8.10 on a separate partition. Then, I didn't really like ubuntu so I decided to delete it and merging the 2 partitions together. Big mistake! Grub loader error 22 came up. So, I had to do a fresh install of Windows Xp that I got from my university for free. So, I don't have the recovery partition that thinkpads come with plus I didn't make a set of recovery CD's as I thought this wasn't going to happen to me. Everything runs smoothly except for the VERY SLOW service load after windows boots up. Notice that windows works like a charm right after bootup except for the SERVICES!!! The services eventually load after 2-3 minutes. I'm fairly sure it's not just 1 service because thinkpad power manager won't start as well without the services in addition to my wifi and ethernet. I've updated my systems and and have every driver up to date except for one that I listed before. Could this be a corrupt file? I've tried quiet a bit of suggestions but to no avail.

[ninjaronin18]

[quote="neenee"]Was your Windows XP installation a clean one and did you 'tweak' any settings, such as altering the default settings for the Services?

Yeah I did AFTER I noticed the problem. When I saw that my changes didn't help, I put it back to the default configuration.

[Marin85]

Just a few points:
1. As for the GRUB error, you could have let XP repair the bootloader (via the repair console since you seem to have XP disc), so actually no need to reinstall everything.
2. After you make a fresh install of XP, what Lenovo applications do you install in addition?
3. How did you find out that the services are the bottleneck?
4. What sort of XP CD do you use (original or some sort of "home-made")?
5. Does the problem also occur before letting Windows and SU do all its updates?

Marin

[ninjaronin18]

Just a few points:
1. As for the GRUB error, you could have let XP repair the bootloader (via the repair console since you seem to have XP disc), so actually no need to reinstall everything.
2. After you make a fresh install of XP, what Lenovo applications do you install in addition?
3. How did you find out that the services are the bottleneck?
4. What sort of XP CD do you use (original or some sort of "home-made")?
5. Does the problem also occur before letting Windows and SU do all its updates?

Marin

1. Ok, I didnt' know that. I just reinstalled everything so I can't go back to that.
2. I installed Active Protection, Access Connections, System Update, Power Manager, Keyboard Customizer, Maintenance Manager, Rescue and Recovery
3. I observed that the services even when set on automatic would not start after bootup until 2-3 minutes later. In addition, I observed last night that Windows took forever to shut down if I don't let the services start up. After the services start up, applications such as my network connections and power manager worked right away. For example, if I try to start power manager when the services aren't started, it won't load. The exact moment that the services start however, power manager and network connections start almost simultaneously.
4. I download the iso image of Windows Pro SP2 from my university for free and burned it onto a CD. So it's a legitimate copy of Windows through my university.
5. Yes, the problem does occur but notice that I can't find the driver for one device located on Intel(R) ICH8M-E LPC Interface Controller - 2811. (If anyone can provide me with a link to the download, that would be great.)

[Marin85]

1. Ok, I didnt' know that. I just reinstalled everything so I can't go back to that.

Never mind, I found it out the hard way as well

2. I installed Active Protection, Access Connections, System Update, Power Manager, Keyboard Customizer, Maintenance Manager, Rescue and Recovery

Since you report problems with your network connections (among the others), you could try without AC and see how it goes if AC is not essential for your work. BTW, which version of AC do you use? R&R and MM can definitely slow down the boot process and tend to mess with all possible services and components of windows. To be more precise, both of them use the tvtschd component (ThinkVantage Scheduler or something the like) which messes around with windows task scheduler and takes a lot of time to load on boot (talking from my own experience). So, I would suggest you to try without them (at least for a while, MM is anyway not a critical peace of software since you can do most of it manually). I forgot to mention that SU also uses tvtschd. As for SU, also please note that is has its buggy history in the past and I guess it still has some bugs. I don´t use it. I always install updates from Lenovo manually and only if really necessary. You can download all the stuff from their website in form of packages.

3. I observed that the services even when set on automatic would not start after bootup until 2-3 minutes later. In addition, I observed last night that Windows took forever to shut down if I don't let the services start up. After the services start up, applications such as my network connections and power manager worked right away. For example, if I try to start power manager when the services aren't started, it won't load. The exact moment that the services start however, power manager and network connections start almost simultaneously.

Ok, I got your point

5. Yes, the problem does occur but notice that I can't find the driver for one device located on Intel(R) ICH8M-E LPC Interface Controller - 2811. (If anyone can provide me with a link to the download, that would be great.)

I believe you need the Intel Matrix Storage Driver for that device. For some reason SU didn´t manage to install it (obviously), maybe just another proof that SU is still buggy... You can obtain this driver again from Lenovo website.

Hope this helps

Marin

[ninjaronin18]

I'll try out what you recommended. Would you suggest calling lenovo and having them send a set of Recovery CD's and using that to restore my system to its factory state? That should solve the issue, right? For now, I can get by using my computer. The only thing really wrong with it is the slow bootup. However, I feel like I need optimal performance from my system.

[Marin85]

Having the Recovery CDs is always a good idea in case you´d like to sell your laptop later. Doing a clean install of XP remains for now the best thing to optimize performance. Slightly offtopic, there is a program called nLite which allows you to remove various windows components from a windows image. Thus you can make an XP install with excellent performance but then you will have to give up a few things, also XP can become buggy depending on what you have removed and what you intend to do under XP. This piece of software is definitely not for unexperienced users!

[ninjaronin18]

Great news! I installed sp3 and everything works well now! Thanks for the time everyone put in this forum. Cheers!

[Marin85]

Oh, ok, surprising news , glad to hear that everything now works as expected

Cheers

Marin

[Marin85]

@ninjaronin18: I sent you a PM.

Marin

[ninjaronin18]

So I left my computer and headed out for a couple hours. I came back, and I found my wireless to have limited connectivity. I thought it wasn't a big deal. I rebooted my computer. It stopped during the Windows flash, then rebooted again! Now, I'm having the same problem before, network connections icons takes forever to load. Same symptoms as before. Windows takes forever to load. What happened? By the way, I installed AVG Free and Panda Anti-Rootkit but that was last week! It's worked flawlessly until now.

[Marin85]

A few things:
1. Update AVG with the latest definitions and scan the whole computer.
2. Uninstall AC, let windows manage your network connections and see if the network problem persists.
3. I believe you suffer from slow boot due to 2 reasons: XP with SP3, too many programs/services on startup. If you want to speed up XP startup, try to get rid of some of the Lenovo programs I mention above. Whether you like it or not, those Lenovo programs significantly slow down windows startup. So, if you don´t need any of them, well, then you don´t need them Also check for unnecessary startup items run -> msconfig -> startup. Apart from this, there are many ways to decrease XP startup time, browse the forum or google, you may find many useful tips on that. If the other points are clean, we may return specifically to this topic later on.
4. It´s possible that some malware is the reason for your problems. Of AVG scan is clean, download Spybot S&D and see if it comes up with something more than "tracking cookies".Download Process Explorer from sysinternals and look for any processes colored in violet. They may point to malware activities (but not necessarily).

As of now, good luck!

Marin

[GomJabbar]

Windows tries to make an internet connection at boot up. If it cannot for some reason, this can delay your boot up considerably.

Removing Access Connections would be one thing to try. If you do, make sure you have the Wireless Zero Configuration Service set to Automatic and Started. Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services.

It might help to disable any connections that you are not active. If you have an ethernet cable plugged in, but the ethernet connection is not working, that could be a problem. Same with Wireless.

[ninjaronin18]

Ok, Windows just started to load normally again. The icons appear about 10 secs after bootup. It seems normal since the network icons are appearing before the power manager icon on the taskbar. Before, the power manager icon would beat the network icons. I'm going to leave the thread open and see how my computer acts in the next few days. I hope this problem doesn't happen again.

[Marin85]

Ok, Windows just started to load normally again. The icons appear about 10 secs after bootup. It seems normal since the network icons are appearing before the power manager icon on the taskbar. Before, the power manager icon would beat the network icons. I'm going to leave the thread open and see how my computer acts in the next few days. I hope this problem doesn't happen again.

The sequence of startup items appearing in your desktop is not a constant. It varies depending on whether you have installed/uninstalled some software, M$ updates also change the appear sequence after the first startup after the updates.